Q&A with Greg Bader: Camden Yards 20th Anniv.,
Uniform Changes and More..., Part 2

We recently did a Q&A with the Communications Director of the Baltimore Orioles, Greg Bader and we touched upon on myriad of topics - the 20th Anniversary of Camden Yards, the uniform and cap changes, general Camden Yards questions and concerns, plus what has been going on with Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota, Florida.

The Q&A was quite lengthy, so we have split it up into two parts. This is part two.

***

What were your thoughts about the change over from Aramark - the old food service vendor - to Delaware North Companies Sportservice? Did you get any opinions from the public -- good or bad?

18 years with one ballpark concessions vendor is a long time, and while Aramark was a terrific partner, we believed the switch to DNC Sportservice would be a benefit to our fans.

The new Birdland hotdog, as well as the steak and egg sandwich and the addition of local favorites Pollock Johnny's and Natty Boh have been great additions about which our fans have raved. And there are still more changes to expect in 2012-new menu items and new food and drink destination points around the ballpark, some of which have been confirmed and some of which have not yet been announced.

With FanFest next month, what can we look forward to as fans? Any new additions, changes?

FanFest will be similar to what fans experienced in 2011, though the layout at the Convention Center is a bit different (we actually have more square footage).

Autographs will be handled the same way, and with that program raising nearly $100,000 for the Orioles Charitable Foundation, we wanted to duplicate the way that was done.

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

Guess Player X: (OBP - SLG) Leaders for 2011 (min
450 PAs)

Guess Player X: (OBP - SLG) Leaders for 2011 (min 450 PAs) Player X: 0.015 Jamey Carroll: 0.011 Juan Pierre: 0.002 Jason Bartlett: 0.001 Ben Reverve: 0.001 [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2012/1/1/2674712/guess-player-x-obp-slg-leaders-
for-2011-min-450-pas

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

Start 2012 off right with an old Yogi commercial

This might just be my favorite commercial of all-time. Yogi Berra + Aflac duck + barber shop = classic. Enjoy, especially if you haven't seen it before.(Let's not forget this is also in honor of Yogi being named "Wisest Fool of the Past 50[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.lennysyankees.com/2012/01/start-2012-off-right-with-old-yogi.html

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

2012: A Long-Awaited Season of Hope Arrives for
Royals Fans

I'm not sure who started it, but for the better part of the last two years, 2012 has stood out like a lighthouse for many Royals fans. Since, well, since really the late 1990s, we've been playing the game of In Current Year+2 the Royals should be good. When Gil Meche signed a five-year contract prior to the 2007 season, only the most pessimistic fan would have guessed the Royals would never sniff contention for the duration of his contract. For no real reason, in 2009, a number of people talked about the Royals as "the next Rays," for example. But things changed in 2010, when Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas revived their prospect careers and became full-fledged minor league stars. Suddenly, thanks to strong seasons from Wil Myers and a number of pitchers, the Royals were really and truly going to begin competing in 2012. The mainstream guys pushed it, the bloggers pushed it, the front office certainly didn't fight it. When the Royals traded Zack Greinke prior to last season for soon-to-be-ready parts, basked in the glow of many "best farm system ever" accolades and aggressively promoted Hosmer early in the season the message was clear enough: 2012 really is intended to be the start of something.

In retrospect, it certainly hasn't been a microwaved rebuild. Dayton Moore, after all, was hired in 2006. That summer, someone decided to take Luke Hochevar with the first overall pick. In 2007, Alex Gordon, Billy Butler, and Joakim Soria made their Major League debuts. That hasn't always looked like the foundation of something to build on -- and still not may be -- but nothing else from all that late decade roster churn has endured. At the Major League level, Dayton Moore has proven to be one of the more interesting General Managers in the game. He's had some big wins (Soria and the Soria extension, the initial Greinke contract, etc.) some big losses (the Jose Guillen signing, the Jacobs trade, etc) and lots and lots of curious moves that, in the end, amounted to very little. Moore is a very measured public figure, and rarely says anything beyond GM-speak boilerplate, but even his defenders would admit that he's emerged as enigmatic and unpredictable. My hunch is that he's ready to make another major move this off-season.

The frustrating thing is that at some point this year, probably more than once, someone is going to write or say, "Royals fans have to be patient." Trust me, we've been patient. We've been more than patient. We've been devout. The truth is, if we'd been spared Moore's wandering in the wilderness period of 2007-09, if a handful of moves had been better, if the team had won a big trade or two, we might have been able to really start thinking about contention last year, if not earlier. I lived through Ross Gload and Joey Gathright, so don't treat me like a fair-weather idiot.

The details fit the narrative ascent, but only part way. Hosmer and Moose are now famous and reasonably seasoned at the Major League level, and there's a large group of interesting arms orbiting about. Certainly, we're better off than we were two years ago, though it is unclear how all these auguries of progress are going to translate in this, the hallowed year of 2012.

The Royals have had mediocre pitching/defense and mediocre offense during the Moore Era, but never at the same time. Last season, I could never get used to the fact that the Royals had an above average offense, but thanks to sundry contributions around the lineup, they did. You can see a scenario in which the offense is very good in 2012: Francoeur and Gordon maintain their 2011 performances, Cain is passable, and two of the three Butler/Hosmer/Moose group take major steps forward. That's quite a lot going right, but here we are.

The pitching is another story. While you can see a strong bullpen for 2012, that's a risky way to build a pitching staff: there's so much inherent volatility in so many moving parts throwing small innings totals in small doses. At present, the rotation is essentially the same group as last year, with a nice upgrade in Kyle Davies effectively being replaced by Jonathan 'The Sanchize' Sanchez. As with the offense, there's a fair amount of, "well, if Hochevar improves and Paulino continues his good work and Duffy takes a step forward..." needed to make the thing work. Last season the team runs allowed per game total of 4.70 was tied for third highest in the American League.

So while perhaps too much of this post has been at attempt at providing perspective the truth is things are different. Again, we have all those bad years of experience to fall back on. The Royals have bonafide expectations in 2012, and even if they don't have to win the division for everyone to keep their jobs, if they truly fall flat, it's going to be interesting to see what happens. And of course, the off-season is far from over. Should Moore make a major move for starting pitching, the stakes will be further raised. If he doesn't, we may have to settle for flashes and glimpses and seeing the upside in 79 wins.

These are exciting times. There's a dose of frisson to the admixture of Royals fandom these days. 2012, whatever that means, is here.

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

Stadiums Where Hosmer Hit the Most HRs in 2011

Stadiums Where Hosmer Hit the Most HRs in 2011

1. 3 - Comerica Park (26 PAs)
2. 3 - US Cellular Field (35 PAs)
3. 3 - Kauffman Stadium (264 PAs)
4. 2 - Yankees Stadium (15 PAs)
5. 1 - Tied with 8 Stadiums

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

Ranking the NL Postseason by Payroll

In an earlier discussion, I took a look at the correlation between TV Market Size and MLB Club Payroll. An interesting question came up in the comments section. The question was this - Does payroll matter in regards to wins? I changed the question slightly to this - Do high payroll teams have more postseason appearances?

As a reminder, I am using the End-of-Year payrolls as the sorting value. This number can vary significantly from Opening Day payrolls as teams make trades for the final push. I have data from the Biz of Baseball going back to 1999, so it is a good reflection of modern baseball.

There is too much data to examine properly in one post, so I am starting with the National League.

To make it into the postseason a team only needs to have a better record than the other teams in its division. Because of that, I only compared the division winner’s payroll to other teams in the division.

To gain the wild card, a team must have a better record than all other teams in the league (except for the division winners). So, I sorted the wildcard teams by their payroll rank in the league after excluding the division winners.

In the charts below, you will see three items: the year, the team that won the division, and that team’s payroll rank. To measure the division winners, I sorted them by their payroll rank within their division. A division winner with a "1" means it also had the highest team payroll in the division. To further labor the point, a "2" means the second-highest payroll, and a "3" means the third-highest payroll.

NL EAST

Year

Payroll Rank

Team

1999

1

Braves

2000

1

Braves

2001

1

Braves

2002

2

Braves

2003

2

Braves

2004

3

Braves

2005

3

Braves

2006

1

Mets

2007

2

Phillies

2008

2

Phillies

2009

2

Phillies

2010

1

Phillies

2011

1

Phillies

NL CENTRAL

Year

Payroll Rank

Team

1999

1

Astros

2000

1

Cardinals

2001

3

Astros

2002

1

Cardinals

2003

2

Cubs

2004

2

Cardinals

2005

1

Cardinals

2006

3

Cardinals

2007

1

Cubs

2008

1

Cubs

2009

3

Cardinals

2010

5

Cubs

2011

3

Brewers

NL WEST

Year

Payroll Rank

Team

1999

2

Diamondbacks

2000

5

Giants

2001

2

Diamondbacks

2002

1

Diamondbacks

2003

2

Giants

2004

1

Dodgers

2005

3

Padres

2006

3

Padres

2007

3

Diamondbacks

2008

1

Dodgers

2009

1

Dodgers

2010

2

Giants

2011

4

Diamondbacks

For this last chart, I list the wild card winners and their rank within all non-division-winners in their league.

NL WILD CARD

Year

Payroll Rank

Team

1999

2

Mets

2000

2

Mets

2001

3

Cardinals

2002

5

Giants

2003

10

Marlins

2004

5

Astros

2005

6

Astros

2006

2

Dodgers

2007

10

Rockies

2008

5

Brewers

2009

6

Rockies

2010

7

Braves

2011

4

Cardinals

By my count, the teams with the highest payroll won their division an impressive 41% of the time. Throw in the second-highest payroll, and the figure climbs to 69%.

Wildcards seem to be the great equalizer, at least in the National League. No top spenders made the cut, and the #2 spender was only successful in 3 tries out of 13. There also appears to be a "lightning in a bottle" effect with the 2003 Marlins and 2007 Rockies.

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

White Sox trade Frasor back to Blue Jays (AP)

Reliever Jason Frasor has been traded back to the Toronto Blue Jays by the Chicago White Sox for minor league pitchers Myles Jaye and Daniel Webb. Frasor, a right-hander, was 3-3 with a 3.60 ERA in 64 relief appearances with Chicago and Toronto last season. Chicago acquired him and pitcher Zach Stewart from the Blue [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.mlbnewsblog.com/2012/01/01/white-sox-trade-frasor-back-to-blue-jays-ap
/

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

Getting nostalgic about classic baseball cards

Today is the first day of a brand new year and while I usually simply consider the night before and this day to be just like any other, my thoughts have been turning recently and more and more to the past.  Guess it?s a result of getting older and a somewhat slow baseball off season. [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://baseballpastandpresent.com/2012/01/01/nostalgic-classic-baseball-cards/

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

The Crawfish Boxes Best FanPosts Of 2011

One of the great things about this site is that readers are given an opportunity to contribute content to this site and I gotta say a lot of it is absolutely fantastic. It seems like this year we've had more contributions than in previous years so unfortunately I can't highlight all the outstanding work, but I will link the most popular ones.

The Front Office

Ed Wade - The Trade Edition - The Crawfish Boxes
By conroestro - A look at the value of Ed Wades trades.

In Defense of Ed Wade - The Crawfish Boxes
By CRPerry13 - It's unpopular to defend Ed Wade, but that doesn't mean you can't make a solid argument.

Part 2: The Case AGAINST Ed Wade - The Crawfish Boxes
By CRPerry13 - And now the bashing of Ed Wade.

Springer pick - evaluating the Astros' BPPA strategy - The Crawfish Boxes
By Pacbellpilgrim - A look at the Astros selection of George Springer.

Change of Scenery

The Bud Selig hate. It burns. - The Crawfish Boxes
By StephS - Realignment was an emotional topic for Astro fans this year.

Bring Back Orbit - The Crawfish Boxes
By Byrontye - I don't know why everyone hates on Junction Jack.

Major League

Jordan Lyles scouting reports - The Crawfish Boxes
By AstroAndy - Everything you wanted to know about Jordan Lyles and more.

Conspiracy Theory: Jose Altuve - The Crawfish Boxes
By Ntn - Jose Altuve's call up was certainly an exciting time.

How Does Jordan Lyles Minor League Stats Compare? - The Crawfish Boxes
By Conroestro - Comparing the Minor League numbers of Lyles to other successful Major League pitchers.

Altuve's High Contact Rate Hurting his Overall Production - The Crawfish Boxes
By CRPerry13 - Jose Altuve and his ability to put bat on ball.

More links after the jump.

Minor League

Hinze on the Right Track - The Crawfish Boxes
By Brad E - A look at Astros prospect Kody Hinze.

Faces in the Crowd: Tracking Prospects - The Crawfish Boxes
By Pacbellpilgrim - How to choose which prospects in the Minor Leagues to follow.

Do the Astros Have an Average Farm System? - The Crawfish Boxes
By Brad E - A look at the state of the Astros farm system in June last year.

Longing for a Longball - The Crawfish Boxes
By BustaPozee - A look at the power in the system.

GCL Astros Year In Review - The Crawfish Boxes
By Snake Diggity - A wrap up of the GCL.

Make or Break Year for 2008 Draftees - The Crawfish Boxes
By Snake Diggity - A look at the 2008 draft class.

On The Diamond

My impressions on "Opening Day" - The Crawfish Boxes
By Byronlhsdrmr - Another Opening Day is almost upon us. This post was an impression of last years Opening Day.

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

30-Year Old Cardboard 2012 Collecting Goals

’30-Year Old Cardboard’ 2012 Collecting Goals By now you all know that I am a very disciplined collector.  And while I do veer from my main goals from time to time, I do keep my focus pretty strict on the … Continue reading →

Read The Full Article:
http://bapple2286.wordpress.com/2012/01/01/30-year-old-cardboard-2012-collecting-
goals/

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!